Rooftop
by Tori of Lorien
Summary: After Bobby and Angel kill the shooters that killed Evelyn, Jack sits on the roof and reflects on all that he thought he knew as his world is turned upside down.  No slash, just brotherly love!


**Rooftop**

**Summary**: After Bobby and Angel kill the shooters that killed Evelyn, Jack sits on the roof and reflects on everything that he thought he knew as his world is turned upside down. No slash, just brotherly love.

**Disclaimer**: Bobby and Jack are not mine and neither is the song "If Everyone Cared" by Nickelback.

**A/N**: Hey! I'm back with another Four Brothers one shot! Have you ever seen the picture of Bobby and Jack when they're sitting on the roof of their house? If you have, are any of you as frustrated as me that that was not in the movie? If you have answered yes to both of these questions, then you will really like this story. Even if you didn't answer yes to those questions, I hope you still enjoy this. I was listening to the song "If Everyone Cared" by Nickelback when I was beginning to write this, and I decided to incorporate it into the story a little because it reminded me of Four Brothers. This is set during the movie when they get home after killing the shooters. Enjoy! If everyone cared and nobody cried 

_If everyone loved and nobody lied_

_If everyone shared and swallowed their pride_

_Then we'd see the day when nobody died._

Jack sighed as he tried to get the song that he had just heard on the radio out of his mind. It reminded him so much of Evelyn… and how much of an angel she was. She had to be since she was not a normal woman… The song's lyrics summed up her morals well, and it also represented the lessons that she had passed down to them. The youngest Mercer loved yet hated that song for that reason.

Why did she have to die?

Jack leaned back against the shingles, used to their rough texture. He was sitting on a small part of the roof that was right outside of his window, looking up at the night sky above him. This was where he had always come when he was stressed during his years growing up under Evelyn's care, though he knew that she would never approve if she knew that he went there since it wasn't the safest. But he had the feeling that she had known anyway…

He sat up as he dug in his jeans pocket and pulled out his pack of cigarettes and took one out, lighting it as he leaned back against the shingles. He put it in his mouth and inhaled as he thought about what had just happened a little earlier that night. Bobby had taken him and Angel to find out more about what had happened to Evelyn, and they had found the two men that had killed her. After a long car chase through blinding snow… Bobby and Angel had shot them.

The snow had stopped now, but that didn't lessen the pain that Jack had experienced when he had witnessed his own brothers take the lives of two people. He breathed out and watched as the smoke made patterns as it rose toward the bright stars that had formed in the night sky above him. He had never thought that he would see _Bobby_ kill a man. It broke him apart from the inside out just to think about it.

Suddenly, Jack gasped when a hand appeared in front of his face and pulled the cigarette from his hand. The youngest Mercer sat up and looked behind him, surprised to see that Bobby was standing on the roof near his window. He looked at the cigarette in his hand and then put it out beneath his foot, tossing it into Jack's bedroom before closing the window behind him again. "These things will kill you, Jackie." Bobby muttered as he brushed some off some of the loose snow beside his younger brother. "I don't want to lose my brother to such a small thing as that."

"Never stopped you before, Bobby." Jack replied.

Bobby smirked as he sat down on the roof next to Jack. "What are you doing out here, you little fairy?" he asked. "I've been looking all over the house for you."

"I'm just thinking." Jack answered quietly with a sigh as he looked down, resting his arms on his knees.

"About what?" Bobby said with concern. "Are you all right, Jackie-O?"

"I've just never seen someone kill another man in front of me before." Jack told him numbly without looking up at his brother.

Bobby laughed. "And you've been living in Detroit for how long now?" he said with a smile.

"That's not what I meant!" Jack replied fiercely with more anger than he meant to. Then, he sighed as he looked away again, tears beginning to burn in his eyes.

The oldest Mercer knew that he had crossed the line. He began to rub his younger brother's back, feeling that he was tensed. "Okay, Jackie. I'm sorry." Bobby muttered. "Are you going to tell me what's really wrong now?"

Jack looked like he could pull away from Bobby's hand, but at the same time appreciated his comfort. "I never…" he tried, but a few tears fell from his light eyes and stopped him even though he was fighting to hold him back. Then, he took a deep breath and began again. "I just never thought that I would see you kill someone, Bobby."

Bobby sighed. He knew that Jack hadn't had the true experiences of street life like he had, and he knew that there wasn't anything that he could say to make the pain his brother was feeling go away. There wasn't a way to justify his actions. "I'm sorry that you had to witness that, Jack." Bobby told him quietly as he continued to rub his back, feeling that he was growing less tensed. "Now I wish that you hadn't since you're so worked up about it. But one thing that you have to understand is that jail wouldn't have been enough for these guys. They were the men that killed Ma…"

"You still killed them." Jack whispered as more tears began to glisten in his eyes. "It makes you almost as bad as them, doesn't it?"

The words stung Bobby so much that it hurt. He had not expected these words from his brother. It would have hurt him even more if he didn't know Jack well enough to know that he didn't mean them. There was something else that was tearing at his younger brother's heart that he wasn't sharing. "No, Jackie." Bobby finally replied. "It doesn't. Now, will you tell me the whole problem so that I can help ya'?"

Jack sighed as he gave up on trying to restrain his tears, relieved for Bobby's warm touch on his back. Would his brother find him a baby… a coward if he said what was on his mind?

"Why did she have to die, Bobby?" Jack finally asked so quietly that Bobby could hardly hear him. "Why did it have to be her? She was the sweetest woman in the whole damn world…"

The oldest Mercer's heart wrenched when he looked down on Jack. He hadn't seen his youngest brother look so vulnerable and so small since he had first joined the Mercer family years before. He pulled Jack close to him into a hug, resting his chin on his mass of hair. "I don't know, Jack." Bobby answered. "I just don't know."

Jack had been getting cold from the winter's chill during the discussion that they had been having, but now he felt comfortable being surrounded by Bobby's warmth. The quiet sound of his older brother's heartbeat calmed him, and he closed his eyes as he took a deep breath, his tears beginning to disappear. Then, he quickly opened his eyes again when he felt Bobby pat him on the back.

"Shit, Jackie! You're like ice!" the oldest Mercer exclaimed, carefully getting to his feet on the slightly slanted surface and pulling Jack up with him. "Let's get you inside! Grab a sweater, and then I'll make you some hot chocolate or somethin', all right?"

Jack nodded, watching as Bobby went to the window and opened it, making the younger Mercer enter first. Bobby shut the window behind him and watched as Jack went to his closet to find a hoddie, and then he went over to his younger brother's stereo. The oldest Mercer reached out and turned it on, seeing that the radio was playing the end of a song…

If everyone cared and nobody cried 

_If everyone loved and nobody lied_

_If everyone shared and swallowed their pride_

_Then we'd see the day when nobody died._

_The day when nobody died…_


End file.
